Tank Transfer

[Nathan Froehner]

So I have been in the hobby for a little over five years. I have a Solana 32 and its pretty well established, LPS, Polyps, mushrooms. I am planning a new tank, 70g Cadlight Artisan II. When I do the tank transfer I plan on using my 30 lbs of live rock I have now and as much water from the old tank as I possibly can. I will also start with new sand with some of my old sand. I need more live rock and want to avoid a large cycle from occuring. I have looked at "Real Reef" eco friendly rock (not sure if I need to cure this or not) and also looking at doing some just dry rock (which i would clean throughly before adding to the tank). Does anyone have any suggestions. I just dont wanna lose any live stock.
Thanks,

 

[brandon429]

these threads are very fun, it is easy to move tanks and not have any cycle, you are introducing a few variables to add to the move but its not hard. The cycle focus w be on the rocks you are adding from the new source, not the ones from your tank. I just did an entire tank clean out with no cycle on my 9 yr old reef, it is very easy to control and stop and predict recycling. The prime way to do that is to not use an API ammonia test kit to judge cycling

The sand you are working with is your mini cycle or cycle risk, and just like my tank you are changing it all out so that's perfect, moving around organically loaded sand is the real risk, not the live rock. your live rock and animals and corals will not die simply by moving to new water.

The sand switch out isn't the critical bacterial loading for nitrification, its in excess of what the rock provides, and some bagged sand like caribsea wet pack minimizes that issue anway, its terribly easy to keep nitrifiers alive inside any aqueos soln used by an expiration date.

my main take on your impending move is keep the rocks you are xferring wet as possible, swap the sand, and control the types of rocks you will be inputting in addition to stop their cycle as well:

dry rock wont cause a cycle, it will start uptaking bacteria and benthics from the other surfaces onto it

real reef rock is fine if it comes with verifiable live animals on it, fanworms, real not painted coralline etc, that we might have to watch out for since you don't know its origin or how those animals held up in shipping


cured rock from a pet store is easy to bring home with no cycle, every tank ive ever put online was that method, we just transport that rock home wet instead of dry and there is no cycle. each time, if it was truly cured from the lfs.

 

[Nathan Froehner]

Two questions:
1. So I am doing all new sand. Do I used the bagged "live sand" or do I use Dry sand from BRS?
2. I am leaning towards using the live rock I have now and mixing in some Dry rock from BRS. Can I just wash the Dry rock with some RODI water and brush and then place dirrectly in the tank? No Curing?

 

[Jimbo662]

I'm doing pretty much exactly what you're doing. I got the reef saver dry rock from BRS and washed it really well with a water hose to get all the lose stuff off of it then dunked it in a bucket of RO water to rinse it before putting in the tank. I did the same with my sand so that it doesn't cloud the water too much. I'll be moving all of my rock which is appx 50 lbs from my cube to the new tank. Once the rock is out I'll drain about half the water and put it in the new tank. I'm going to use a net to scoop up the sand and rinse it in the remaining water to get as much crap out of it and then put it in the new tank. I've also got a bottle of bio-spira that'll add additional beneficial bacteria.

 

[brandon429]

The sands inherent bacteria are more critical if you have a large fish bioload in the new tank can you post a full current tank shot

The fish bio loading in your new tank can be held by avg live rock stacks without sand, that's how people are able to switch between live sand and BB

If you use wet pack Carib sea arrive alive sand it has the bac so the risk would be neutralized

The dry sand if used just like #2 above can be put into the living tank without causing a cycle because it is inert, there's no living material to die and cause a cycle. Here's my thread

Just because my tank is one gallon doesn't change any aspect of transfer biology even if comparing to a 1000 gallon reef

the pico reef will die faster from any cycles so its good mine canary
more work same predictability between very large and very small rock swaps

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/w...e-you-dont-get-a-mini-cycle-in-a-nano.204187/

 

[brandon429]

Agreed on Jims bottle bac idea it is fine insurance and never harmful to use. Among the various snake oil things we've seen in reefing, bottle and bagged bacteria are not included, they are legit. in summary, turns out its easy to keep the single most adapted organisms in our tank to water environments alive inside a bottle of water, we'd been second guessing them this whole time.


http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/8/review

I feel it's important to know that cycling biology is so predictable you do not need them, but it never hurts to add them to a tank as they will assimilate, compete and live or die among the bac that get into our tank every day. Nitrifiers get in our reef tanks every hour, and escape the tank every hour, to continue on the ubiquitous path they live in this world (aerosols among other vectors if someone is wondering)

 

[brandon429]

I think the initial step where you separate the corals and rocks from the sandbed, before you stir it up or begin removing it, is the critical step for the old tank. when I did mine, I carefully lifted out and set in a container all the rocks and corals without stirring up any sandbed issues and potential ammonia

once the corals and rocks were out only leaving a tank, water and sand, the ripping began